‘ECI is totally exposed’: Congress welcomes SC directive on SIR row

New Delhi: Welcoming the Supreme Court directive on the Bihar SIR issue, the Congress on Friday said democracy has survived a “brutal assault” from the Election Commission of India (ECI), claiming the poll body stands “totally exposed and discredited”.

The opposition party also said that it hopes this “stern order” by the Supreme Court finally breaks the ECI’s “arrogance and it stops its nefarious attempts to steal votes and evade accountability”.

The Congress’ assertion came after the top court directed the ECI to allow excluded voters to submit their claims through the online mode besides making physical submissions in the SIR exercise of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi allowed claim forms to be submitted along with Aadhaar card number and any one of the 11 acceptable documents in the SIR.

Expressing surprise over political parties not coming forward in filing objections related to the 65 lakh excluded voters, the top court directed the chief electoral officer of Bihar to implead them in court proceedings.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications, Jairam Ramesh, said the party welcomes the Supreme Court directive. “Democracy has survived a brutal assault from the Election Commission of India,” he claimed.

On August 14, the Supreme Court intervened to set aside the ECI’s decision to withhold the list of deleted voters, Ramesh said on X. It directed that the list of deleted voters must be published along with the reasons for such deletions, he pointed out. Also on August 14, the Supreme Court directed the ECI to accept Aadhaar card as proof of identity for those whose names were deleted, Ramesh said.